all thumbs
Clumsy; awkward; not dextrous.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“I'm all thumbs today and keep dropping things.”
“He tried to fix the watch but was all thumbs and made it worse.”
“The nervous apprentice, usually skilled with delicate instruments, became all thumbs the moment the master craftsman entered the workshop.”
first recorded 16th c.
Derived from the sixteenth-century proverb "when he should get aught, each finger is a thumb." The expression was recorded in John Heywood’s Collection of 1546, describing a specific anatomical redundancy that renders one entirely incapable of grasping the matter at hand.
- 01
all fingers and thumbs
Of a person, clumsy or awkward.
- 02
brown thumb
A lack of skill at growing plants; a poor gardening skill.
- 03
butcher's thumb
A dishonest practice in which a butcher uses their thumb to add extra weight to a scale when weighing meat.
- 04
fash one's thumb
To bother oneself; to worry about something.
- 05
green thumb
A natural skill for gardening.
- 06
rule of thumb
A general guideline, rather than a strict rule; an approximate measure or means of reckoning based on experience or common knowledge.
- 07
thumb a ride
To hitchhike.
- 08
thumb on the scale
An act of bias or a tactic for cheating which creates a situation that unfairly benefits one party involved in an interaction.
Last updated August 10, 2026